He likes pure ingredients, a simple recipe and a final product dripping with oil. But for Pincus, the most important attribute is a latke’s nostalgia-inducing abilities.

“I need it to remind me of the latke I ate growing up. None of this new age stuff,” he said. “If it makes me think of Grandma’s home during Hanukkah, it’s a winner.”

Pincus was one of about 200 attendees drawn by the promise of latkes and other Jewish cuisine to Congregation Brit Shalom, 620 E. Hamilton Ave., for a kosher hot dog dinner, bake sale and latke cook-off. The event raised money for Hadassah, a volunteer women’s Zionist organization.

To paraphrase Mark Twain: The reports of higher education’s death have been an exaggeration. American universities produce more research and relevant knowledge for the world at large than any other institutions I know of. Tuition may be too damn high, but over the long-run, undergraduate degrees are definitely worth the cost. But Penn State could be so much more. It used to be, I think.

A Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board hearing began on Tuesday in Pittsburgh for former Penn State general counsel Cynthia Baldwin, who is accused of violating rules of professional conduct in her representation of former university administrators during the Jerry Sandusky investigation.